The European commissioner Paolo Gentiloni
The Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, advocated this Tuesday for implementing at the European level an instrument similar to the SURE mechanism that was launched to mitigate the blow of the pandemic on unemployment and that is based on loans to Member States for, in this case, mitigate the energy crisis.
Although Gentiloni has clarified that it is not a topic of discussion at the current meeting, he has stressed that the intention is to increase “solidarity” and “avoid the risk of fragmentation”, but not “criticize one or another Member State” , has pointed out regarding Germany’s announcement of a support plan of 200,000 million euros, which has raised reserves among other member states such as France.
“We are not blaming the countries, we are not discussing the fact that each country or Member State, inevitably, is supporting their economies,” stressed the Commissioner for the Economy.
The SURE mechanism was one of the instruments that was launched to mitigate the blow of the pandemic and establishes a maximum of 100,000 million euros in loans to member states to finance the plans.
These funds are financed with European Union debt issues on the market and the Member States contribute to the instrument by providing guarantees for European Union issues.
For his part, the economic vice president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, has indicated that the conversation between the heads of the EU Economy will focus on Repower EU and has expressed his intention to “reach an agreement on the outstanding elements” and the ‘funding sources’ of the programme.
“We need a coordinated response,” added Dombrovskis after being asked by the press about an instrument to mutualize debt at a European level.
The Commissioner for the Economy has stressed that countries must implement “temporary” and “focused” measures to mitigate the blow of the rise in prices due to the war in Ukraine and has insisted on the idea of ”avoiding fragmentation” as well as of «increase the levels of solidarity» for which it is necessary «to set up more common instruments».
The German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, for his part, has underlined the need to make an effort at European level to promote joint gas purchases or reform the functioning of the electricity market “but our package is not disproportionate if you compare it with the size and the vulnerability of the German economy.